Astros and Craig Tatum

The Astros signed catcher Craig Tatum. In his major league career, Tatum has a -.8 WAR in 3 seasons. He has played in just 100 games and 299 PA, and his statistics so far are very unimpressive:  3.06 ABPP, .46 PPG and 554 OPS. However, with so few games and plate appearances (and since he played baseball in college), the college metric may have him measured out to be better. According to the College Metric, his statistics should be 3.12 ABPP, .58 PPG, and .609 OPS. There really isn't any reason to expect him to get any better. He has a career OBP of just .291, walks about league average, and is a groundball hitter. His secondary average is a putrid .141, and his ISO sits at .041. His PPS is just 80.87, and he creates just 2.4 runs per game. Well maybe the Astros got him because he is a defensive catcher. Nope, a -.2 D-WAR. I am not sure why teams pick players like this up. My only guess is that they are hopeful his lack of success is just small sample size (that is why I pointed out how he should do according to the college metric, I think that basically rules out the small sample size.). The Astros aren't very good, and they have a problem at the catcher position, but this isn't going to solve it.